I’m not a yacht designer or marine architect; I’m not even a very experienced oraccomplished mariner, but I have an idea for my own dream boat. It’s the boatI’ve searched for all my life and never found fully realized, although I mustconfess some of the early Island Packet designs and the Com-Pac boats built byHutchins often came pretty close. Please forgive me for not providing moredetailed suggestions as to construction, design, or rigging, but let me attemptto communicate an idea instead.

I visualize a coastal cruiser/weekender/gunkholer optimized for roughing it onFlorida waters, but solidly, even overly built with speed, weatherliness and light-air performance sacrificed for seakeeping properties and survival in our infrequentbut inevitable gales. After all, if you’re sailing, you’re not in any hurry toget there, right? But you never know when you’re going to need some reservecapacity.

Size? between 20 and 30 feet. Shoal draft (perhaps even bilge keels?, but certainly no centerboard, too many moving parts and structural compromises). She should be able to float in water shallow enough so that the crew can always jump out and push. She should be beamy, blunt bowed, flat soled and transomed. Traditional lines, lots of room below, plenty of space for netting and shelving for gear, but no lockers or lazarettes unless they can be integrated into the hull as structural, load-bearing elements. In other words, lots of empty space and padeyes where you can lash all the containers, bags, bins, and jugs you like, where you like, and where everything is visible at a glance when needed in a hurry. Its why God invented waterproof plastic tubs: they can always double as floatation when empty.

This boat should not look like your living room, it should look like your garage orworkshop. And she should have a big cockpit, one that can be easily rigged witha boom tent and mosquito netting for comfortable anchoring. The vessel should be easily single-handed, but optimized for a crew of two: man andwife, parent and child, or best of friends. The key is simplicity, in rig andhull. Sloop-rigged, no bowsprit, and if possible, an unstayed mast. As little tobreak or wear out or maintain as possible, oversize hardware and fittings allaround. Tiller steering, no tankage, wiring, or plumbing, no through-hullfittings. Even the nav and com gear, LED running lights and cabin illuminationshould be waterproof clip-ons or pocket models, powered by replaceablebatteries: easier to buy or carry spares than deal with temperamental circuitryand generating equipment. Only an outboard motor should be considered for power. Sanitary and cooking facilities should be primitive, portable, purchasable at the local camper or RV shop, and jettisonable in an emergency. The owner can fit his boat out to his taste or needs.

The target customers would be a young couple, small family, or a pair of hardyretirees ready to camp out on the water. Simplicity is the key, take advantageof modern materials and construction techniques, but this should be a boat any17th century sailor would instantly feel at home in.

I don’t know if there’s a commercial market out there for a boat like this, but Iknow I’d buy one.

Yr most hum. & obd’t servant, etcHenry Cordova

Dear Henry,

Wow! This was certainly off my radar screen! Sounds like (in a good way) a Conestoga wagon that floats and sails, a Prairie Schooner with a sloop rig

The practical thing about your no frills concept is any buyer could add whatever amenities they’ddesire (either by the factory or afterwards), so its market would notnecessarily be too narrow. I have considered a trawler concept likethis, good bones, but very basic standard equipment and level of trim andfinish, with the option to upgrade as an owner desires. The trawler market issaturated (new and used), but I suspect we could find a niche if doneright.

Thanks for this input Henry, who knows how all these ideas will combine to inspire us in thefuture.